Thursday, February 20, 2014

Song of the Week: Don Covay and the Goodtimers -- Mercy, Mercy and Can't Stay Away

This Flipster just hit a record store which recently purchased a radio station's collection of singles. Clearly this Green Bay, Wisconsin station was into soul. That makes for a happy, albeit a little less financially secure, Flipster. In the coming weeks, you'll very likely be hearing a lot of these records digitally spinning here at On The Flip-Side.

We'll start with Don Covay's August, 1964 release for Rosemart Records. One of only two releases Covay had on the boutique label owned by Atlantic Records. Mercy, Mercy became a common number of the 60s garage bands thanks in large part to The Rolling Stones who more than ably covered it on their Out Of Our Heads album from 1965. Incidentally, they recorded the number at Chess Studios in Chicago.

Don Covay recorded his composition on May 13, 1964 at A1Recording Studio in New York. Why is this important? Because the man he used for guitar was none other than Jimi Hendrix. Hendrix plays on both sides. And man, oh man, is it beautiful. It's as understated as it is great. Apparently when Jimi Hendrix got to the UK a few years later he used Mercy, Mercy as one of the audition songs for both Noel Redding and Mitch Mitchell. Cool. But I don't want the Jimi Hendrix connection to overcome the greatness of these two songs. Sit back, play it again and again. It only gets better with age.